A beginners Guide to School Festivals

Hey guys! It’s Max, back with yet another story about Zack. Our schools reopened recently, and we had a back-to-school festival. It was so much fun. We had a ton of performances, tons of games, and a bunch of other booths. It was so much fun to see all of our classmates again. Me and Rachel (a character in the ‘Locked down’ series) managed to get into the same class this year. It’s been pretty fun since then. We had a bucket load of fun with our performances. We, of course, nailed everything. But I wish we could have said the same for Zack. He decided he wanted to sing a duet with Addison, our classmate. And since each student who applied got to do two performances, he decided that he would dance. Again. The last time he tried to dance, he broke his leg. I’m not expecting different this time.

“Max, I need help,” Zack yelled barging in through the front door, without knocking as usual. Rachel was at my place, practicing for the show. The door opened the second she came out of the bathroom with her costume on. Zack looked momentarily confused, and the continued. “I wanna dance on the day of the school festival. This duet with Addison is really the most boring performance I’ve ever done.” I was pretty shocked. “Zack the last time you tried to dance you broke your leg. What if something else happens this time?” “Nothing will,” he said. “You wanna know why?” “Why,” I asked, sounding totally bored. “You’re gonna be my teacher,” he said. “No,” I said. “Please.” “No.” “Pleaseeee,” he went on. “Ugh fine Max will teach you just stop that noise,” Rachel said. I jumped. I had forgotten she was still here.

The next day Zack showed up, right on time for the first time in his life. Wow, he was taking these seriously. “Okay,” he said. “I’ve got a few songs in my mind,” He started off. I stopped him. “We need to warm up before starting. You’re definitely gonna break another bone if you start off without stretching again.” “Ugh fine,” He groaned. “And for the record,” I went on, “I’m not sure I can let you start off with a fast song, so you can get ‘IDOL’ out of your head,” I said. ‘How’d you know I wanted to do that?” “You’ve been singing it all of yesterday,” I replied. “Is ‘boy with love’ allowed,” He asked. Ugh, why does he always pick the choreographies he knows he can’t do. This is gonna be tough.

Just when Zack’s warm-ups were done, Rachel showed up. “Hey Max, you ready to practice? I’ve finally gotten my part of the song ready.” “Hey, um, Rach, I’m kinda busy with Zack right now. How about you start with your warms up and I’ll be there in 15 minutes.” “Sure,” she said and went inside to change her clothes.

Meanwhile, Zack had begun trying his hand at the steps. He was actually pretty good at it. Maybe this wasn’t so hard after all. I spent 15 minutes walking him through the steps, and then we went into the garage to practice. Wow, he was doing pretty good. Until Rachel stepped into the garage for our practice. The idea was that Zack would practice in the garage and Rachel in the basement. But mom was cleaning the basement. And it was not at all practical to be in the attic. So we had to split the garage. Oh man, this isn’t gonna be good.

I played the song me and Rachel were supposed to do. We had decided to ‘Dumb Dumb’ by SOMI. It was not easy. We started the steps. Just as the dance break took over, Zack came up to us. “Can you guys please keep the volume down? It's getting kinda hard to practice over there.” We began again, with a softer volume. This time Zack’s music was overpowering ours. Thankfully mom finished cleaning the basement the second a war nearly broke out.

Me and Rachel moved into the basement. The second we started, Zack came up to us, for the next set of steps. With a sigh, I went down and helped him with the steps for another half an hour. Exhausted, I went back up to Rachel to continue our practice. We managed to do the entire dance twice over before I needed to go back down to help Zack yet again. All this up and down was really getting hard for me.

Finally, after three hours, both Zack and Rachel were done at ready to leave. I went up to the attic with my laptop, finally getting some alone time. Just then, my phone rang. It was Addison. “Hey Max, I was wondering if you could help me with this choreography for the school festival. The duet with Zack is honestly kind of boring.” Oh well. Time to go help Addison with her choreography.